Investigators seek cause of plane crash that killed three people from Palatka

JESSIE-LYNNE KERR and DANA TREENThe Times-Union

Published Tuesday, January 15, 2008

Authorities continue to investigate the cause of a single-engine plane crash into Old Tampa Bay on Saturday that killed a Palatka couple and their pilot son.

Joseph Bellamy, 31, of Pinellas Park was piloting the Cessna Skyhawk 172 taking his parents, Gordon Dale Bellamy, 55, and Susan Louise Coyle Bellamy, 53, on a sightseeing flight. All three died when the plane crashed about 3:40 p.m. into Old Tampa Bay, about 100 yards short of Runway 22 at St. Petersburg-Clearwater International Airport.

Their bodies were recovered from the submerged plane, said Tom Iovino, spokesman for Pinellas County, which owns the airport.

Gordon Bellamy was a plumbing contractor in business with his brothers, Donald and Bruce, at Bellamy Plumbing Inc. in Palatka, a business started by their father. Three wreaths were on a fence Monday at the Bellamy Plumbing office. A poster on the door said the business was temporarily closed due to deaths in the family.

Susan Bellamy was a registered nurse who worked at Putnam Community Hospital but had changed jobs to work at a Palatka dialysis clinic, said a nephew, Jason Fair.

Joseph Bellamy was a computer network engineer who had worked at Raymond James and Associates, a brokerage firm headquartered in St. Petersburg.

He had been flying for about five years, Iovino said. The plane was owned by the Pinellas Pilots Association.

Weather was not a factor in the crash, he said. Joseph Bellamy was flying the airplane on visual flight rules and did not broadcast a distress call. Iovino said eyewitnesses told investigators the pilot may have misaligned the plane heading in for a landing on the runway that is devoted to general aviation.

"In trying to make a partial correction," Iovino said, "he may have encountered a wing stall."

A controller in the airport tower saw the plane roll to its right, overcorrect to the left, roll to the right again and then head nose up and stall before rolling to the left again and falling out of sight.

Iovino said investigators from the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are on the scene investigating the crash. The wreckage was being lifted from the water Monday.

In Palatka, the Bellamys were described by neighbors as a close-knit family.

"These people are really going to be missed in the community," said Lonnie Yarbrough, who has lived next door to the Bellamys for 17 years.

The Bellamys have two surviving children, Dawn Marie Simpson and Jonathan Bellamy, and two grandchildren, Fair said. Gordon Bellamy is also survived by his mother, Estelle Bellamy of Palatka, and two sisters, Marilyn Long of Palatka and Rebecca Hatcher of Edgewater, in addition to his two brothers.

Susan Bellamy also is survived by her mother, Ann Sterrett of Trenton; two sisters, Sandra Kirk of Green Cove Springs and Katherine Redcay of Pennsylvania; and a brother, Bobby Monsen of Georgia.